Nissan Tiida not so sexy

Update: 2010 Nissan Tiida

Alborz Fallah

16:2916 May 2006

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Update: Nissan Tiida Review

The Nissan Tiida is not doing that well. Lets face it, its called Tiida! And it has the chick from Sex & The City doing the ads, this alone rules out any single male who values their dignity from buying it, AND, did I mention its called Tiida? Nissan Australia has only sold 1463 Tiidas in the first three months of this year compared with the 4566 Pulsar sales in the same period last year and only now have Nissan realised that perhaps Tiida's advertising campaign wasn't the smartest. I can understand that Nissan are trying to target the Tiida at the late 20 early 30 year old females, but maybe they forgot that males also buy cars? It might have been this continuous industry perception that women are now the new driving force behind car purchases. Yes, this is shown to be true in most cases.

Statistics say women buy more than 50 per cent of new cars and 85 per cent of buying decisions are made or influenced by women.

85%? I guess that should explain the alarming number of 4WDs being driven around in suburbia these days. Nevertheless, when you aim a car directly at a specific gender, perhaps the males in the household will have alarm bells going off when the name Tiida comes into question. Tiida? Imagine if the guys saw me in that! Might as well drive a Rio, that sounds manlier.

"Tiida hasn't quite got the traction we thought it would have at this stage. Awareness is still the main issue. We're looking at plans on how we improve that awareness. Our creative executions are getting the cut-through: research indicates the word is getting out. We have a steady, gradual incline with Tiida. We'd like to see it sharper, but it is moving." Ross Booth, Nissan Australia's new general manager of marketing and public relations.

Hasn't quite got the traction? That’s a nice way of saying it. I remember a few weeks back they had the Tiida cars driving in and around Brisbane with massive Tiida marks all over them in case you thought they were something a little more manly. Is it the name? Its hard to say, but I think it has a bit to do with it. Nissan doesn't seem to think so:

"We have no issues with the name `Tiida'. No one is rejecting that,"

You know what Ross? I am rejecting it. No one? What a big claim. Not one single person is rejecting the name! I am happy to say I want to be the first one to reject it. Yes, I am rejecting Tiida as a car name. If they wanted a car name that was sexy and maybe a little feminine maybe they should have thought a little harder about the name.